Let’s chat about the Sons of Anarchy season 5 premiere, shall we? Those who haven’t watched the episode yet should probably stop reading and come play in the sandbox later on.

Sons of Anarchy season 5

Some of my observations: we already know from the opening montage that there’s going to be a lot going on in the 90-minute season opener. Jax has acquired the gavel and now seems to, partly anyway, be following right in his father’s footsteps. Beautiful wife, two sons and keeping a journal for his sons to read some day. Of course, the club was much more manageable back in the John Teller days.

As for SAMCRO, we notice some new faces: newly patched in members, Filthy Phil finally made the cut, we also have some new blood welcomed in. Nomad “Frankie Diamonds”, Chuck Zito, “Gogo”, played by Chris Browning (who you’ll recognize if you’ve seen some of the bigger westerns in the past 10-ish years) and “Greg the Peg” played by Kurt Yaeger, and yeah, that is a real life prosthetic leg as a result of a motorcycle accident. (oh, and if you’re on Twitter you should really follow Kurt (@kurtyaeger). He’s a genuine NICE guy!)

Clay, down but not out

Then there is the disgraced former SAMCRO prez, Clay. Only a few weeks have passed since the season 4 finale, so he’s still on the mend and Gemma wants nothing to do with him. A broken man, with an oxygen tank, he’s essentially the new Piney, but much more devious. Props to Ron Perlman’s physical acting for taking Clay to this new place. I couldn’t tell if he actually lost weight or if the clothes he was wearing helped make him appear so withered. While Clay’s body may be broken, his mind is still tack sharp. It’ll be interesting to see how he tries to undermine Jax’s authority all season. He’s already off to a great start with the lies he told his brother’s about Piney’s murder and how he killed him in self-defense.

Speaking of Gemma, that was a hell of a way for all of us to be introduced to her new man, huh? Enter Jimmy Smits as Nero Padilla, former gang-banger, current ‘companionator’. I’m not normally a Smits fan, but I admit I’m already liking his character. I sort of love the dynamic that Nero and Gemma have going on. And he won me over with the line “I like a little patina on my precious metal” when she asked why he hooked up with her.

Damon Pope

And let’s talk about Damon Pope (Walter Perrineau, who you’ll recognize from Oz, Romeo + Juliet and Lost), the newest and quite possibly baddest gangster we’ve met on SOA thus far. He’s a slick Oakland gangster with expensive suits, fancy cars and a big time vendetta against Tig, who accidentally murdered his daughter in some misplaced vengeance. And while he’s at it, he figured he might as well take out the Sons while he’s at it.

Ok so here is probably where I should also talk about the Niners going off the cuff. They hit the SAMCRO chaperoned box truck in the beginning of the episode and Sheriff Roosevelt informed the club that some home invasions of SAMCRO associates have been happening, presumably at the hands of LeRoy and the Niners.

Back to Damon Pope’s vendetta: this guy is smart and calm, which makes him pretty dangerous. In subsequent scenes it’s revealed that he’s dispatched LeRoy in a grisly fashion for ignoring direct orders to lay low. His sights are on Tig and instituting some Hammurabi’s code, with an added kick. Tig is lured out to an abandoned train yard and chained up like a dog. Pope has Tig’s daughter, Dawn (or Margeaux- with an “x”), unconscious in a gruesome hole in the ground. He has his lackey pour gasoline on her (where she of course wakes up) and proceeds to set her on fire. (This is the point where my Twitter feed went bonkers at people’s reactions to how effed up this scene was.) And for me, of course, hearing her scream “Daddy!” right before they cut to commercial was completely heart-wrenching. Kim Coates better send Kurt Sutter a nice fruit basket for giving him the opportunity to show off his acting chops. (TVLine interviewed Coates about preparing for this story line.)

But Pope didn’t stop there, as I mentioned he’s looking to castrate SAMCRO. He hires “witnesses” to pin two murders on Jax, Chibs and Tig so when they go to jail “black” can get rid of them and no one would barely think twice about it. And then he bought some kids some ice cream.

It's good to be the King...or is it?

And then there’s Jax and the shit show he’s inherited with the gavel. His (almost wife) takes a bath with a gun by her side. The cartel still wants him to move their product (and the CIA is still leaning on him), the Irish are uneasy and only want to deal with Clay (oh riiiiiight. This is why Clay is still alive), Clay’s manipulations are starting to form, Opie is pissed at him and stepping away from the club and now Pope’s false witnesses have turned him into a fugitive.

Last but not least, the end scene where we see Unser in Gemma’s house, the door is busted open and him being beat down by a bunch of guys. Of course we’re let in on who those guys are when we see the bit of prostethic leg poking out from under the pant leg. And we’re left wondering why are the new members of SAMCRO are terrorizing the club’s associates?

I deliberately stayed off the interwebz during the first airing of the series primere, didn’t want to miss anything by twittering or facebookin’. The only error (don’t y’all hate assholes who point out errors?) is that it wasn’t Unser’s house where the three nomads broke in and started beatin’ the crap out of Unser. He was at Gemma’s house. He’d just fed her bird and turned out the lights to leave out the back door when the nomads on a mission burst in.

But other than that, your recap/review was spot on.

Anyway, the big deal of the premier was Dawn/Margaux’s bein’ turned into a crispy critter by Damon Pope and his entourage. The fact that the telephone call from a cop who’s BIL happened to be one of the Grim Bastards makes one wonder if the GB were used as a tool to gain Tig’s trust. Frankly, it smells fishy to me that a cop would offer to let an outlaw’s daughter off on a DUI charge as a favor to another outlaw. Even if said other outlaw is a family member, it just doesn’t make sense! Yet, it also shows the depth of love Tig has for his children that he would go after her under those auspices. And Pope knew he would fall for it.

What really interested me, and y’all had to really be watchin’ the first airin’ (if not the other two), was that Pope turned his face away from the firey pit for a brief moment. It wasn’t long, and it didn’t change what ultimately happened, but it said somethin’ about the man. So does goin’ from lightin’ up Tig’s daughter to givin’ away ice cream to the kidlin’s a little later. From one extreme to the other.

((As an aside, while postin’ on the SOA.Net FB page, a lot of people got all worked up thinkin’ Tig was gonna die in the premier and I said no, that wasn’t gonna happen. Firstly, because Sutter wasn’t dumb enough to kill off one of his popular characters. Secondly, I knew that Pope was gonna go for Biblical retribution. An eye for an eye a daughter for a daughter.)) Sometimes I hate bein’ right.

Clay may physically resemble Piney (and wasn’t that poignant when Ope put the for sale sign on the trike?) but that’s as far as the resemblence goes. That was some lie he told the club. Just enough truth to make it real, but still a lot of subterfuge.

And I have to wonder what that lie is gonna do to the whole Tig/Clay brotherhood. Tig has been Clay’s best boy for years. Now, because of the lie Clay and Jax set in motion, Tig has suffered immensely. He has killed yet another innocent woman by accident. This time, the crow came home to roost on Tig. If I were Sutter, I’d be drawin’ heavily on that in eps to come. If not this season, then certainly next season.

And if the damn idiots in charge of the awards snub Mr. Coates for that brava performance he gave in Sovereign, methinks a lot of us bitches who own our own bikes should hold a protest ride against ‘em all.

My fun points.
Midway through the live chat “Warning: Explicit Language” started scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

Hiding behind a motorcycle during a shootout is never a good idea. Also, the van was shot up & caught on fire would the police not look in the surrounding areas for stuff? Bunch of guys carrying a box through the woods should be easy tracking..just saying. Oh well it was a setup point.

Happy’s response to Roosevelt, Pirates.

Opie is having the wake for Piney..was that a pine box Piney was in…for his kids who aren’t there.

Tyler really didn’t want to be promoted in the Niners. This scene reminded me of Star Wars where Darth Vader does the Jedi throat crush on the Admiral and then the Captain who was standing next to him got promoted. He had that same look that Tyler did after seeing Darrell get shot in the head.